Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

No End to Human Rights Violation

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No End to Human Rights Violation

Human rights violation continues unabated in contemporary era. People’s rights and dignity are humiliated. They are still judged on the grounds of their color. People of color still suffer from discrimination and bias. They are belittled, sold, and killed simply due to their color. Since discriminating one based on their race, color or creed is against international instruments, it will outrage the public conscience.
A recent CNN video clip showing people from African countries allegedly being sold as slaves for as little as $100 went viral, drawing the outrage of many, including the United Nations.
To show a backlash against this issue, thousands of people gathered in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, on Saturday night to protest against the alleged sale of African migrants and refugees in Libya. Lovette Jallow, who organized the protest, said that it was a human rights issue, this was something that one could do and should do in their homes. “Are you from Turkey, Kurdistan, Iran or Egypt? If in all these countries when you are home, and people are called ‘Abed’ ‘Slave’, speak up!”
It is an undeniable fact that when one is sold as slave, dishonored or killed due to their racial or religious backgrounds, it will be outrageous to the entire world. If individuals and nations do not exercise patience or tolerance toward one another, peace and prosperity will remain elusive. 
Martin Luther King Jr. sought to put an end to discrimination on the basis of color in the Unites States. He dreamt about a civil society in which all people, including the Black and White, were treated equally. In his historical speech titled “I Have a Dream” he said, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), all people are born free and equal in rights and dignity. People’s rights to life and freedom are inherent and inviolable. Violating their rights and dignity will be not only against international instrument but also against religious tenets and moral values. If we view trading people as slaves from moral perspective, it will be highly shocking. It is not acceptable in religions, either.
It is lack of tolerance that allows one to underestimate the rights and blood of people. For example, religious fundamentalists exercise no sense of tolerance toward the public and shed their blood without an iota of mercy. They value neither one’s life nor one’s dignity. To view the rehearsals of the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), it spilled streams of blood simply in light of one’s race or color. Their dogmatic mindset left no room for tolerance. Therefore, Yazidi women bore the brunt of discrimination. Both their rights and honor were violated flagrantly.
Following the reports about Libya’s slave trade, a group of UN human rights experts has strongly condemned the issue. In a joint statement issued on Thursday, the group urged the Libyan government to take “urgent action” to end the practice.
It is said that that many of the enslaved refugees are held for ransom or forced into prostitution and sexual exploitation to pay their captors and smugglers. Others are murdered by smugglers or die in the desert from thirst or car accidents.
Human trafficking is thought to be one of the fastest-growing activities of trans-national criminal organizations. Human trafficking is condemned as a violation of human rights by international conventions.
In December 2012, UNODC published the new edition of the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. The Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2012 has revealed that 27 per cent of all victims of human trafficking officially detected globally between 2007 and 2010 are children, up 7 per cent from the period 2003 to 2006. There are many different estimates of how large the human trafficking and sex trafficking industries are. Scholar Kevin Bales, author of Disposable People (2004), estimates as many as 27 million people are in “modern-day slavery” across the globe.
Hence, the world will have to put an end to human rights violation, be it in the form of trafficking, slavery, shedding one’s blood, etc. If we do not respect the rights and dignity of one another, we will never have a prosperous life or form a civil society.

Hujjatullah Zia is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at zia_hujjat@yahoo.com

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